CARTEL LEADERS PLEAD GUILTY

An Era In The U.S. War On Drugs Ended In Miami Federal Court With The
Guilty Pleas Of Two Colombian Kingpins

The Colombian kingpins who revolutionized the global cocaine trade
appeared as mere mortals in Miami federal court on Tuesday in
pleading guilty to smuggling-conspiracy charges and apologizing for
their life of crime.

Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela stood in dark businesses suits
before U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno as he sentenced the Cali
cartel founders to 30 years in prison and ordered them to forfeit
$2.1 billion in assets from their once-powerful empire.

"I am willingly submitting myself to American justice," Gilberto
Rodriguez Orejuela, 67, who was shackled at the ankles, told the judge.

Said Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, 63, who was also cuffed: "I want to
apologize to my family and ask for forgiveness for any suffering I
may have caused them. . . . I'm doing this fully convinced it will
bring something better."

So significant was the case of the Colombian brothers -- responsible
for 80 percent of the cocaine sold in the United States in the 1990s
- -- that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and South Florida's
U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta took the rare opportunity to hold a
news conference in Washington on Tuesday afternoon.

'FATAL BLOW'

'The brothers' guilty pleas effectively signal the final, fatal blow
to the powerful Cali Cartel," Gonzales said. "There are always other
traffickers and thus continuing challenges for law enforcement, but
this is a day of pride for the people of Colombia and for
international law enforcement."

Indeed, last March, Gonzales publicized a crackdown on another
Colombian narco-network that controls a big chunk of the cocaine
trade from South America through Mexico to the United States. He
announced the indictment of the entire top leadership and dozens of
other commanders of Colombia's FARC guerrillas on charges of running
a $25 billion drug operation responsible for 60 percent of the
cocaine on U.S. streets.

On Tuesday, the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers pleaded guilty to
conspiring to smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States. The
brothers also agreed to plead guilty to a separate indictment filed
in New York that charged them with conspiring to launder their drug profits.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Axelrod estimated that the figure was
"over 200,000 kilograms" -- imported to South Florida and other parts
of the country from 1990 to July 2002. The brothers packed the white
powder in concrete posts, frozen vegetables, coffee and ceramic tile,
among other creative ways.

The brothers faced up to 30 years in prison because they conspired to
import more than 150 kilos of cocaine -- even after they were
arrested by Colombian authorities in 1995 and were incarcerated in
Bogota until their extraditions to Miami in 2004-05.

The judge, known for his wit, drew laughs from the packed courtroom
when he responded to Axelrod's smuggling estimate: "I think that
would probably meet the threshold."

RELATIVES SPARED

Their plea deal came with some benefits: The brothers don't have to
worry about the fate of other family members who allegedly were
linked to their narcotics enterprise.

As part of their plea deal, 28 family members -- including sons,
daughters and cousins -- signed a separate agreement that removes
them from a U.S. Treasury Department list that designated them as
part of the Cali operation, according to their attorney, Marc
Seitles. Of those, six family members won't be prosecuted on
drug-related charges of obstruction of justice or money laundering.

The agreement allows the brothers' family members to keep some of
their wealth that was untainted by drug profits, such as real estate
in Spain. "The best chess players understand that every now and then
you must sacrifice some important pieces for the safety and security
of the entire board," said Miami lawyer David O. Markus, who
represented Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, while attorney Roy Kahn
represented the brother Miguel.

The brothers' syndicate reached its zenith in the early 1990s, when
they allegedly exported more than 4,000 kilos of cocaine per month to
the United States. Despite their incarceration, prosecutors said
Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela's son, William Rodriguez Abadia, a
Colombian-trained lawyer, continued the family narcotics business
through 2000. The son, who pleaded guilty in March, agreed to testify
against his father and uncle at a trial scheduled for November.

Their prosecution capped an investigation that began almost two
decades ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Ed Kacerosky
and assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Ryan. Upwards of 100 Cali cartel
members were convicted as part of Operation Cornerstone in the United
States and Colombia.